Page 114 of The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The Second Collection
“As more than friends?”
“Guess you’ve heard about that.” He sighs. “Yeah, we saw each other while she was married.”
“And while you were married?”
“Yeah.”
I clear my throat. This feels like kicking a dying dog. But my best friend is counting on me. I push on.
“You and Miranda Porter had an affair while you were both married?”
“Yeah.”
“When did the affair end?”
“Little over five years ago. When she methim. She wouldn’t talk about him. Wouldn’t tell me his name or who he was or what he did, but I followed her. Saw them together. Big guy. Dark hair. Spoke like he was from up North somewhere.”
Jesus, Logan.
“Did you ever speak to him? Confront him?”
He shakes his head. “I wanted to, planned to. I went to the place they were staying together and waited, but Miranda came out first. She sent me away, promised we’d talk.”
“Did you?”
He huffs a little breath through his nose. “She talked to my wife.”
“What did she say?”
“Told her everything. Every time we’d been together. Every word I’d said to her.”
“What had you said to her?”
“The truth. Shell got pregnant and I did the right thing by her, but she wasn’t my girl. She wasn’t the one I wanted to spend forever with. I was with her for the kid, but that was it.”
“What happened after that?”
“Shell left me. Took Jennie with her and wouldn’t let me see my own kid. She said she’d ruin Miranda’s career at the hospital if I ever tried to contact them again. Moral turpitude or something.”
I make a note to look for a moral turpitude clause in Miranda’s employment contract.
“Why would you care about Miranda’s career if she’d just destroyed your marriage?” I ask, genuinely puzzled.
Fred shrugs. “I love her.”
My chest seizes and I swallow hard, both horrified and awed by the simplicity of that statement.
“Have you seen her since then?” I ask.
“Seen her? Yeah. I followed her for a while, trying to get her to talk to me. She got a restraining order. Said I was threatening her. I wasn’t. That I’d hit her. I didn’t. Not once. I just wanted to understand why she shut me out.”
Because she fell for Logan.
“Did you ever find out?”
He shakes his head. “Broke the restraining order, didn’t I?” He pulls up the leg of his faded jean and shows me a thick, plastic collar locked around his ankle. “Can’t leave the village.”
“How long do you have to wear that?” I ask, horrified. It’s one thing to be chipped by my friends to keep me safe. It’s another to be leashed by a legal system Miranda’s manipulated.
